Planning tribunal ordered to pay multimillion-euro costs

THE PLANNING tribunal accepted it must pay the multimillion-euro costs incurred by two directors of Joseph Murphy Structural Engineers in their dealings with it over 163 days.

The pair successfully challenged the tribunal’s refusal to allow the costs and the Supreme Court yesterday ordered the tribunal to pay the legal costs of proceedings by Joseph Murphy jnr, Frank Reynolds and JMSE Ltd in the High and Supreme Courts.

The court also overturned an earlier High Court order requiring the applicants to pay the State’s costs in the High Court.

A unanimous Supreme Court decision last week overturned the tribunal’s refusal to allow the JMSE side the substantial costs of their dealings with the tribunal over 163 days. The judgment set out parameters for assessing entitlement to costs.

The Supreme Court ruled that findings by former tribunal chairman Mr Justice Feargus Flood that the directors “obstructed and hindered” its inquiries were outside the tribunal’s terms of reference, unlawful and invalid, and could not form a basis for refusing costs.

The court stressed the tribunal had been dealing only with an application by the JMSE side for its costs and had not addressed any applications for costs against JMSE. It also stressed a tribunal is entitled to take into account lack of co-operation when addressing costs.

The findings of obstruction and hindrance were inextricably linked with the tribunal’s substantial finding of corruption against the directors (which they had not appealed) and was therefore linked with a criminal offence, the court ruled. Those findings were unlawful as the tribunal does not constitute the administration of justice.